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Brian May reworking forgotten Freddie Mercury songs

'NEW' MUSIC: Brian May says a new Queen album is on the way. Photo: Associated Press

Queen are bringing Freddie Mercury back from the dead for a new album similar to Michael Jackson’s hit posthumous release “Xscape.”

In a new BBC interview, guitarist Brian May has revealed plans to release new material later this year, which will include unreleased songs sung by frontman Mercury, who died in 1991.

The rocker says, “We found a few more tracks with Freddie singing and all of us playing and they are quite beautiful. It is a compilation but will have this material that nobody in the world has ever heard. I think people will really enjoy it.

“Most of it comes from the ’80s when we were in full flight. It is quite emotional. It is the big, big ballads and the big, big epic sound… We had to start from scratch because we only had scraps. But knowing how it would have happened if we had finished it, I can sit there and make it happen with modern technology.”

And the new album isn’t the only link between dead stars Jackson and Mercury – last year May announced plans to release collaborations between the two singers. It is unclear if these songs will feature on the new Queen album, tentatively titled “Queen Forever.”

May and bandmate Roger Taylor are preparing for an upcoming Queen tour of North America with former “American Idol” star Adam Lambert fronting the band.